I'm a Northern Irish guy currently studying the introductory online course in Scottish Gaelic with Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. Just stumbled across this video and glad to hear that college getting a shout out. I would 100% recommend them. Also, the BBC does an interesting wee course that I'm doing on the side called "Speak Gaelic". Each module in it comes with a half hour TV episode (available on the BBC iPlayer app) and a half hour podcast (available on the BBC Sounds app)
It maybe more accessible for you to learn the Ulster dialect of Irish. Is a high degree mutual intelligibility with Scottish Gaelic. (In fact Galloway dialect of Scottish Gaelic & Ulster Irish almost indistinguishable. Many Protestant Unionists are learning Ulster-Irish these days.
I took classes in Scots Gaelic in Seattle in the Nineties. In person. No on-line stuff back then. There was a lot of emphasis on Scots Gaelic songs. The music scene was very much alive. We learned waulking songs, and the class actually waulked a tweed. We used the fabric to make a vest for our teacher, and he adopted the nickname “Am Peitean,” meaning “The Vest.” My nickname was “Siona Beg,” which is “Little Jana.” I never did become fluent in the language, but I still remember quite a few phrases, and can geek out on some of its unique grammar.
heard you mention discord and just wanted to say, I actually help out on a celtic language server, so we study all the modern celtic languages and even some of the dead ones! wasn't expecting to see discord pointed out but it does put a smile to my face for us to get noticed!
Please note: Despite their close similarities, Irish and Scots Gaelic are different. So, whatever language learning system you use, make sure you choose the correct version of Gaelic.
Yes, and Manx Gaelic is also different. I can understand some Irish thanks to my Scottish Gaelic, but it's like being able to read some Spanish because I have French. Actually Nova Scotia Gaelic can be a bit different from Scotland Gaelic, but only a bit.
I've been studying Gaeilge (Irish) independently for roughly a year now and while the learning curve is a bit steep to begin with once you get it you can easily look at a word and see how its pronounced Gaeilge is very logical and straight forward but also beautiful and poetic a language certainly worth learning.
I've been learning through Duolingo over the past year or so (moreso Irish than Scottish) but on a recent trip I noticed that, especially in the Galway area of Ireland and some areas of the Highlands of Scotland that there are a lot of dual-language signs with English and whichever dialect of Gaelic is local. It was a very cool experience and I was able to figure out some words that I hadn't encountered in Duolingo because I could see (for example) what building they were on.
Duolinga is an excellent way to start. My wife and I have been learning for the last year. In Tulsa we have a very active and growing Scots Gaelic club! Pronunciation is interesting because, like every language, there are regional differences and 3 different instructors may pronounce a word 3 different ways yet all are correct. Also, Gaidhlig grammar, syntax, and construction could be described as both backward and sideways relative to English, which makes learning to think in Gaidhlig (And therefore fluently speak) my biggest challenge.
BTW, I thought it was somewhat humorous that you played a clip of an Irish speaker at the end of your presentation. The speaker's name was John Henery who has now died. It's easier for an Ulster man to understand a Scot than it is to understand a Munster man.
I absolutely have to agree with you about recommending Duolingo except that the Duolingo Sc Gaidhlig is particularly well put together with love and devotion from some 14 volunteers... Be prepared to do the drills that Duolingo put you through that give you a good foundation... this is true of any harder than average language, where you have to work smart in your first year of effort
Gaidhlig is coming back. There are schools in the USA, Canada and Scotland that are making it a part of the education system. As far as is it worth it? Tha, very much so. Our language is critical to our identity as an ethnicity.
When I was a boy in our home we spoke about 60% Canadian English, 25%, Scots English, 10% Gaidhlig, and 5% Cree. So in this screwed up mish-mash what is my official language? I believe it all depended on who you were talking to at the time and how old they were.
@@douglasherron7534 there is a theory, that the Italic languages, of which Latin is part, and one of the only languages from the family to survive, that gave birth to the Romance languages, was very close to the Celtic language family, of which Gaulish, Brythonic and Goidelic languages is a part of, now German, it would only make a bit of sense, as it is also a Indo European language, and the Gauls lived near and together Germanic tribes in some cases.
@@maximilianolimamoreira5002 Interesting. Is this theory coming from linguistics or etymological scholars or is this just some random person claiming a link? While modern examples of cross-utilisation of words between languages would suggest that similar situations may have existed in the ancient world I don't see Latin and Gaelic / Welsh / Cornish / Breton / Catalan being of the same root stock. I don't know enough about the grammer of the "Celtic" languages to be able to compare sentence structure etc. to Latin but word form and sounds are significantly different. German, on the other hand, does have some similarities for example the soft -ch sound in certain words. However, I'm no expert...
@@douglasherron7534 well, some linguists share this view, but not everyone agrees with it, it would be a bad move of mine, if I've told you some idea, from a layman.
@@douglasherron7534 well, some words are similar in both family of languages: for example, you in most Romance languages is tu, and in Goidelic languages it's tù, especially in Irish, but that is because both families are Indo European and come from proto Indo European, and it's said and written, that the Gaulish could understand Latin, and vice versa, due to some apparent relation between the two, and written Gaulish looks like Latin, and also Greek grammatically.
If I was going to learn a Celtic language id be way more interested in learning the Scottish version than the Irish version of Gaelic as I'm somewhere around half or more Scottish and something like less than 5% Irish so Scot one is obviously more of interest to me. There's way more apps and whatnot for Irish Gaelic if that was the one you wanted to learn.
You could reasonably point out that most of the scenic areas of Scotland for tourists are Gaidhlig speaking to a greater or lesser degree.... if you are an active Gaelic learner, you will never need to be bored on rainy days
@@polytheneprentiss1534 Yes, which helps decipher the meaning, whereas anglicized spellings obscure the ancient world mindset of the original... Place names are able to add a sort of 3D insight - imagine California without any of the Spanish names...
I just named my new Boykin spaniel puppy Breagha (Brea (Bree) for short) which is Scots Gaelic for "beautiful" or "bright". I've received lots of compliments on the name.
I've been studying Gaelic with Duolingo for a bit, but it's difficult to find a good way to practise producing the language organically, without sentences that no sane person would use in day-to-day life. I also tend to struggle with the phonetics. The only qualms I have with Duo are that it doesn't have speaking exercises to complement its listening exercises and that it doesn't have a way to explain why something is pronounced a certain way in a certain context, e.g. "bh" as /v/ at the beginning or end of a word but /w/ in the middle.
I’ve heard that the fishermen like to use it to let their friends know where the fish are without letting others know like the Navajo Code Talkers, making it useful today. 😁
Another point: Scotland itself was not a single ethnostate until recently, the Scots-Gaels (aka the people that brought the Gaelic language to Scotland) were but one of several ethnic groups residing in Scotland when the Kingdom of Alba united the land that would become Scotland, their descendants becoming the Highlanders of historical Scotland Meanwhile in the Lowlands, Gaelic wasn't much spoken because that Gaelic ethnic history is lacking, most Lowlanders were themselves of Anglo-Saxon descent (as well as some Bretons and Norse and Picts), and with more trade coming from the English in the south rather than the Gaelic north, there was less cause for the Lowlanders to know Gaelic unless they had personal connections, so even in history Gaelic was always spoken by a relative minority of the Scottish people (compared to Ireland), and with the Highland Clearances of the post-Jacobite era and the Highland Scots being scattered into the Lowlands and the Colonies, Gaelic took a further nosedive into relative obscurity Part of the point of this is to say Gaelic is not something universal to Scottish culture or history, and Highlanders are a minority population within Scotland, so there isn't much value ascribed to the language compared to Irish Gaelic (and in another comment I note that even many Irish don't care much for the Irish Gaelic language), so failure to preserve the language is not necessarily a failure to the Scottish people, but also if you choose to learn it you definitely should and let nothing stop you, if there isn't much stock in preserving a cultural history, you could just learn it simply because it's cool lol
I'm afraid that some of what you say is not true. At one time, Gaelic was spoken more or less throughout mainland Scotland, even in the Lowlands. Galloway and Ayrshire were Gaelic-speaking right up to the 18th century. The last native speaker of Aberdeenshire Gaelic only died as late as 1984. The extent of Gaelic is evidenced by the overwhelming number of placenames that are of Gaelic origin all over Scotland except for the Northern Isles. There are Gaelic placenames even in the Lothians which were traditionally the area where the Angles settled and were confined to until about 1100 AD. Saying that most Lowlanders were of Anglo-Saxon descent is nonsense. DNA studies have shown that there is only about 10% Anglo-Saxon DNA in long-established populations in Scotland. The Angles were the smallest proportion of the population in Scotland. The Britons of Strathclyde, the Picts, the Gaels and the Norse made up the vast majority. There were a small number of Anglo-Normans and a larger number of Flemish, but both were in the minority. Around 1500, the split between Gaelic and Scots was around 50/50. The real decline set in after James VI&I issued the Iona Statutes in 1609 forcing Gaels "of substance" to send their children to be educated in English. There was no state support for a bible in Gaelic and no state support for schooling in Gaelic. The state and the church imposed English on the Gaels. A Gaelic bible was introduced in the 18th century and there were efforts to promote schooling in Gaelic. However, with the Gaelic way of life being smashed after Culloden, the clearances and forced emigration, the real blow to Gaelic was the 1872 Education Act which made English the language of compulsory schooling in Scotland. Children were beaten, shamed and encouraged to denounce each other for speaking Gaelic in school. As a Scot, I am delighted that Gaelic is now a protected language and has government support to promote it in public life.
@@alicemilne1444 Im afraid he is right, Historian Steven L. Danver, who specializes in indigenous ethnic research, wrote regarding Lowlands Scots and Gaelic Scots' unique ancestries: "The people of Scotland are divided into two groups - Lowland Scots in the southern part of the country and Highland Scots in the north - that differ from one another ethnically, culturally, and linguistically ... Lowlanders differ from Highlanders in their ethnic origin. While Highland Scots are of Celtic (Gaelic) descent, Lowland Scots are descended from people of Germanic stock. During the seventh century C.E., settlers of Germanic tribes of Angles moved from Northumbria in present-day northern England and southeastern Scotland to the area around Edinburgh. Their descendants gradually occupied all of the Lowlands."
@@alicemilne1444 You are obviously arrogant, thinking you know better then someone who has studied it is pretty arrogant but hey keep telling yourself your right, but facts are facts, sorry if your offended, definition of arrogance; an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions, not only are you arrogant but ignorant as well, definition; lacking knowledge or comprehension of the thing specified, which when you are arrogant it leads to ignorance which leads to stupidity, not that you are stupid but it is stupid to think your personal uneducated, unprofessional knowledge is fact.
@@alicemilne1444 Quote from Arthur K. Moore (2014). "The Tenant of the Garden". The Frontier Mind. University Press of Kentucky. Their original home was the Lowlands of Scotland, a region from which the Gaels had been largely expelled sometime after the arrival of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes in the fifth century. A predominantly Germanic people, the Lowlanders, like the Northumbrians, mixed freely with the Norse, who in the ninth and tenth centuries planted numerous settlements in northern England and southern Scotland, and by the end of the Viking period they were even less Celtic than before.
This may be a silly request, but could you guys identify which tartans you are wearing and which whiskeys you guys are enjoying while shooting these videos? 🏴👍🏼
If I am not mistaken. Scotland has been ramping up teaching Scottish Gaelic . From what I understand they have seen a disservice in not teaching their history and culture.
It was made illegal for a long time thanks to the English. Much culture was lost, and much was transformed in strange ways especially in religious practices.
The teaching of Gaelic is being encouraged in schools now particularly Primary (that's Elementary for those of you the other side of the pond). However, if we have had a disservice in teaching our history and culture it must have been of our own making as the Scottish education system is distict from that in England and Wales. This has been the case since well before the Union of the Crowns (1603 for those who don't know) never mind the Act of Union (1707) and has remained so to this day. Same applies to the Law, hence in Scotland you can have one of three verdicts (Guilty, Not Guilty and Not Proven) not the two that predominate in most other legal forms. The biggest problem with schools in Scotland (like most of the West) is that they have been politicised and now indoctrinate rather than educate. This is why the Scottish PISA scores have been falling for the last three or four cycles (since the SNP came to power) and we now rank below England in several key areas - something that never happened before.
I love the Gaelic language; I’m learning it on Duolingo! I think if you want to preserve the culture, preserve the language. I blame England for banning Gaelic after the Jacobite rebellion. This totally contributed to the endangerment of the language. This is also why I’m a Scottish nationalist (only been once and don’t have any ancestry). Hopefully the language is kept. ALBA GU BRATH! AIRSON ALBA!
Any language must have a critical mass of speakers to survive, and it must be used in daily life. Without that, it will die. I'm a Scot, who lives in Wales and there are still large areas of the country where Welsh is still the first language. They have been fighting since the 60's to preserve this. In Wales everything must be bilingual, by law. All Govt services, the Welsh Assembly, Local Authorities, Courts, Police, Hospitals, Utility Companies, TV, etc. must operate in both languages. Even our road signs are bilingual. There are Welsh Medium schools in every large town where all teaching is done in Welsh, and all children must learn Welsh up to the age of 16. They have better funding from the Govt than English language schools, and as a result, are very popular. This hasn't reversed the decline of the language, but it does protect it and everyone now knows some basic Welsh. 2 similar examples I can think of are 1) Canada, where the country is officially bilingual, but French is only really spoken in Quebec. 2) Northern Ireland, where Irish was dying out in the North until the Troubles started in the late 60's. The Republicans started to revive it as a means of reinforcing their Irish Catholic identity and culture, and along with the GAA, and separate schools, it became part of a wider Gaelic revival. Unfortunately, it also widened the divide between both communities. No Unionist could, or would have any connection to, or use Irish or play GAA games. They don't identity themselves as Irish, they see themselves as British.
"It's a thorny issue with strong arguments on both sides, especially for Scots who must continuously decide if efforts to save the language are worthy of public funding." 👆 Thalla is cac d' àirde. No there aren't, what absolute shite patter.
Agreed. Folks don't understand the amount of history, culture, tradition, and downright humanity that is lost when a language disappears. Of course it's worth saving, it's as worth saving as saving a people themselves! What nonsense.
The Scottish Gaelic language is half dead because of England! They banned it after the Jacobite rebellion and they banned other aspects of highland culture too. Neo-eisimeileachd do dh’Alba!!!
Gaelic with Jason , Sabhal Mor Ostaig . BBC Alba . Tha Gaidhlig sgoinneil. Feumaidh sinn bruidhinn e fhathast. . A culture must keep its language alive .
My family's home town in Co. Donegal are part of the gaeltacht where the Irish is spoken as much as or in some places more than English. So yes, while I would love to retire there someday I want to learn the language better than I know it already.
The video you showed was of one of the last monolingual speakers of irish gaelic not scots gaelic they are in fact similar but different languages.If scots gaelic is to be preserved it has to be in scotland not ireland,they are too different jurisdictions anyway.Very poorly researched which is not like this channel normally. I mean learning one of the gaelic languages will make it easy to learn the others but they are different languages.
Hey, wanna start out saying I love you guys and your products, but one thing you said bothered me you said 'we are not Scottish period, we don't live in Scotland' well that may be true I am just as Scottish as someone in Scotland because my family and clan was forced out of the highlands because of persecution after the battle of Culloden. Also, 40% of my clan died on the voyage over fleeing from the English and Scottish and the majority of people who are native to Scotland don't live in Scotland they mainly live in North America and Australia, so no matter what I will always be a native of Scotland not Canada and so will my children! Also, no person can be native to Canada or America because we already have indigenous people who have lived here before us and want their home to be free like Scotland should be! Buidah No Bas and have a great day!!
@@Xacute00 idk man as a Scot who lives and was born here I believe you are a product of your environment and the culture you are born into. It doesn't matter to your ancestry. If you came here you would probably not fit in as a Scot and people wouldn't recognise you as Scottish (although of course that doesn't mean that we aren't friendly). A lot of people who move from CA/US or even England after years just don't get the patter. I think I speak for a good majority of folk here that when we hear an American/Canadian say "I'm Scottish" we cringe a little. A lot of us feel particular annoyance towards people trying to appropriate our culture because it was almost completely destroyed and whilst your lineage may be from x clan that isn't really what makes a Scot a Scot. If you don't quack like a duck or walk like a duck then you're not a duck. Also we're not a race.
@@Griefthaboy Well that's easy for you to say, my family went to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia which means New Scotland, and we settled and founded Broad Cove Banks. My ancestor was a Scion of the House of Lorne and I can track my ancestry to Scotland. Since my family was forced out and we have kept with our highland traditions I would consider myself a Highlander still while being Canadian my nationality of course but that doesn't change my, shall I say spirit or identity? For example, the Jews were forced out of Israel but still segregated together to remain Jewish are they not any less Israelites because their lands were stolen and they were forced out? While obviously, my ancestors didn't go through the extremities of the Jewish people, it still proves my point to an extent. Now I understand your view of sharing an identity with a person of another nationality may be weird but isn't that a little silly. Are Sikhs in Canada just not Sikhs? Are the Ukrainian people who came here as refugees no longer Ukrainian? You can chuckle about it but in our hearts, we will always be highlanders no matter the opinion of any person. Best of luck to you, I hope that you can understand the connection our nations have.
@@Griefthaboy Also to add in, culture and nationality are two completely separate things also I don’t recognize myself as Scottish I identify as a Scottish Highlander a different culture group since the Scottish are more focused around Norman and Britons culture groups then Gaelic culture though it does include some aspects of it as some of its main identifiers. It’s like you have never heard of oppression or the highland clearance, when someone’s land is stolen that doesn’t mean they have to allow for their identity to be stolen too. Also since Scottish Highlanders are a culture not a nationality I can identify as that, also over 40 million people around the world claim to be Scottish and only 5 million of them are actually in Scotland which should disgust you that your government is responsible and you just stand idle. So our culture is no longer decided in our homeland but in the places where your great government and our great kings family decided to exile all the savages they didn’t like. If that bothers you then petition your government to make it so people who have Scottish ancestry can return to Scotland. That way those who’s ancestors were stripped of their basic human rights will be given the opportunity to return and identify as Scottish in nationality. This act will help to resolve what was stolen from them by the past and help to rebuild what was lost as well, restore a hopeful future to Scotland and to help heal the dreadful present it’s in now. Also if all it takes is for you to be nationally Scottish to be culturally Scottish then I guess you see Indian, Pakistani, Polish, Chinese, Gypsies and multiple African peoples culture as part of your own but wait that would be cultural appropriation. I wonder why lots of Canadians identify as Scottish? it’s because a large portion of our population is Scottish and not Native Canadians.
The words are not dead Whiskey Smashing Galore Brag Brogue Glen Lag Tag Bag Twig(understand) More Spate A bruidhin ghaidlig gach latha ,h uile duine. We all speak a little Gaelic every day.! Dead ! Nuugh !
a way to look at it: pretty much everybody in Ireland has to learn Irish (Gaelic) in school growing up very few retain it let alone speak it, many if not most don't actually care for it; many others say that kind of time could be better spent learning any other language (especially to make them competitive in the EU job market); many of course do appreciate it and see the value of cultural preservation, but the sheer amount that will tell you to your face they don't care can subvert expectation
I'm really not sure what the point in learning Gaelic would be for a Canadian like myself... All my Scottish and Irish ancestors have been dead for at least 40 years. I can't think of a single person I'd be able to talk to. I mean... I guess I could learn it know just to "show off" to my peers but I don't really want to do that. Plus I just plain suck at language learning. My wife is native Mexican and I'm slowly grinding my way through Spanish for gosh sake! 😂
Guess you're not from Nova Scotia (New Scotland) then? For a large part of the 20th century there were more native Scots Gaelic speakers in Canada than there were in Scotland... I remember being amazed to see dual-language street signs (English and Gaelic) in a sizeable town in North Nova Scotia in 1998.
@@douglasherron7534 No I'm from Alberta where there is not many Scottish Canadians. Most of our white population is of Ukrainian roots and other east European nations (I have none, I'm almost of completely British and Dutch ancestry.) They left the Russian empire during the revolution and world wars. They populated much of the northern portion of the province. I've never met a single Gaelic speaker that I know of. Though I've met the odd Scottish person in passing so... Maybe?
@@99oildrops Alberta must have had a fairly significant Scottish diaspora at some point considering Calgary and Banff are both named after Scottish towns and even Edmonton has strong connections to Scotland or Scottish settlers as many of the place names in the city are Scottish.
@@douglasherron7534 I suppose there would be some at least but it has never really seemed noticeable. I do know that Edmonton is an English name but I would think there was a few Scottish people who settled there. I had no idea that Banff was a Scottish name though. That's way cool! 🙂
I’m learning it on Duolingo. The language contains the culture. English is not our language but the language of the invaders from the mainland who call themselves by that name.
AAAH your not the one person I always thought you were the one person, you know...just editing so it looked like you were talking to yourself. Maybe one of you should grow some hair so people can recognise you guys. I'm still laughing about how stupid I feel realizing you are two seperate people.So how is the Scottish independance debate going in the U.S.A....??????
I'm a Northern Irish guy currently studying the introductory online course in Scottish Gaelic with Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. Just stumbled across this video and glad to hear that college getting a shout out. I would 100% recommend them.
Also, the BBC does an interesting wee course that I'm doing on the side called "Speak Gaelic". Each module in it comes with a half hour TV episode (available on the BBC iPlayer app) and a half hour podcast (available on the BBC Sounds app)
It maybe more accessible for you to learn the Ulster dialect of Irish. Is a high degree mutual intelligibility with Scottish Gaelic. (In fact Galloway dialect of Scottish Gaelic & Ulster Irish almost indistinguishable. Many Protestant Unionists are learning Ulster-Irish these days.
I took classes in Scots Gaelic in Seattle in the Nineties. In person. No on-line stuff back then.
There was a lot of emphasis on Scots Gaelic songs. The music scene was very much alive. We learned waulking songs, and the class actually waulked a tweed. We used the fabric to make a vest for our teacher, and he adopted the nickname “Am Peitean,” meaning “The Vest.” My nickname was “Siona Beg,” which is “Little Jana.”
I never did become fluent in the language, but I still remember quite a few phrases, and can geek out on some of its unique grammar.
The Scottish Government has been doing a lot to promote and revive Gaelic. We now have a couple of Gaelic schools in Glasgow. Saor Alba agus Eireann X
And in other cities/ towns too! :-)
Aw, Saor Alba.
Free Scotland!
I’ve been using duolingo to learn Gaidhlig na h-Alba and love it! 💜
heard you mention discord and just wanted to say, I actually help out on a celtic language server, so we study all the modern celtic languages and even some of the dead ones! wasn't expecting to see discord pointed out but it does put a smile to my face for us to get noticed!
I’ve been learning Scots Gaelic gradually over the past few years, it is by far my most favourite language.
i like it too, it's good to see insular Celtic languages being still spoken, i would love if the continental ones survived.
Please note: Despite their close similarities, Irish and Scots Gaelic are different.
So, whatever language learning system you use, make sure you choose the correct version of Gaelic.
Yes, and Manx Gaelic is also different. I can understand some Irish thanks to my Scottish Gaelic, but it's like being able to read some Spanish because I have French. Actually Nova Scotia Gaelic can be a bit different from Scotland Gaelic, but only a bit.
@@GuruishMike I understand some Gàidhlig thanks to Gaeilg Uladh :D
I've been studying Gaeilge (Irish) independently for roughly a year now and while the learning curve is a bit steep to begin with once you get it you can easily look at a word and see how its pronounced Gaeilge is very logical and straight forward but also beautiful and poetic a language certainly worth learning.
I've been learning through Duolingo over the past year or so (moreso Irish than Scottish) but on a recent trip I noticed that, especially in the Galway area of Ireland and some areas of the Highlands of Scotland that there are a lot of dual-language signs with English and whichever dialect of Gaelic is local. It was a very cool experience and I was able to figure out some words that I hadn't encountered in Duolingo because I could see (for example) what building they were on.
Duolinga is an excellent way to start. My wife and I have been learning for the last year. In Tulsa we have a very active and growing Scots Gaelic club! Pronunciation is interesting because, like every language, there are regional differences and 3 different instructors may pronounce a word 3 different ways yet all are correct. Also, Gaidhlig grammar, syntax, and construction could be described as both backward and sideways relative to English, which makes learning to think in Gaidhlig (And therefore fluently speak) my biggest challenge.
In Tulsa?! Wow! That’s surprising and cool!
I know. It seems they put the cart before the horse in Scottish Gaelic.
please learn it! thank you from scotland :)
BTW, I thought it was somewhat humorous that you played a clip of an Irish speaker at the end of your presentation. The speaker's name was John Henery who has now died. It's easier for an Ulster man to understand a Scot than it is to understand a Munster man.
I absolutely have to agree with you about recommending Duolingo except that the Duolingo Sc Gaidhlig is particularly well put together with love and devotion from some 14 volunteers... Be prepared to do the drills that Duolingo put you through that give you a good foundation... this is true of any harder than average language, where you have to work smart in your first year of effort
Put together with love, it was.
Gaidhlig is coming back. There are schools in the USA, Canada and Scotland that are making it a part of the education system. As far as is it worth it? Tha, very much so. Our language is critical to our identity as an ethnicity.
When I was a boy in our home we spoke about 60% Canadian English, 25%, Scots English, 10% Gaidhlig, and 5% Cree. So in this screwed up mish-mash what is my official language? I believe it all depended on who you were talking to at the time and how old they were.
I’m currently tryin’ out Gaelic on Duolingo with a friend who mentioned it. It’s an interesting language, much different than Spanish and Japanese!!
@Dan Pictish Really??? How can it be related to two languages with completely different roots?
@@douglasherron7534 there is a theory, that the Italic languages, of which Latin is part, and one of the only languages from the family to survive, that gave birth to the Romance languages, was very close to the Celtic language family, of which Gaulish, Brythonic and Goidelic languages is a part of, now German, it would only make a bit of sense, as it is also a Indo European language, and the Gauls lived near and together Germanic tribes in some cases.
@@maximilianolimamoreira5002 Interesting. Is this theory coming from linguistics or etymological scholars or is this just some random person claiming a link?
While modern examples of cross-utilisation of words between languages would suggest that similar situations may have existed in the ancient world I don't see Latin and Gaelic / Welsh / Cornish / Breton / Catalan being of the same root stock. I don't know enough about the grammer of the "Celtic" languages to be able to compare sentence structure etc. to Latin but word form and sounds are significantly different.
German, on the other hand, does have some similarities for example the soft -ch sound in certain words. However, I'm no expert...
@@douglasherron7534 well, some linguists share this view, but not everyone agrees with it, it would be a bad move of mine, if I've told you some idea, from a layman.
@@douglasherron7534 well, some words are similar in both family of languages: for example, you in most Romance languages is tu, and in Goidelic languages it's tù, especially in Irish, but that is because both families are Indo European and come from proto Indo European, and it's said and written, that the Gaulish could understand Latin, and vice versa, due to some apparent relation between the two, and written Gaulish looks like Latin, and also Greek grammatically.
I am learning Scottish Gaelic on Duolingo to preserve my ancestral heritage.
Yes, I started back in January as a way to keep busy and sharpen the mind. I really enjoy it. I am using Duolingo as well.
If I was going to learn a Celtic language id be way more interested in learning the Scottish version than the Irish version of Gaelic as I'm somewhere around half or more Scottish and something like less than 5% Irish so Scot one is obviously more of interest to me.
There's way more apps and whatnot for Irish Gaelic if that was the one you wanted to learn.
You could reasonably point out that most of the scenic areas of Scotland for tourists are Gaidhlig speaking to a greater or lesser degree.... if you are an active Gaelic learner, you will never need to be bored on rainy days
Aren’t there also a lot of signs that are in Gaelic?
@@polytheneprentiss1534 Yes, which helps decipher the meaning, whereas anglicized spellings obscure the ancient world mindset of the original... Place names are able to add a sort of 3D insight - imagine California without any of the Spanish names...
I just named my new Boykin spaniel puppy Breagha (Brea (Bree) for short) which is Scots Gaelic for "beautiful" or "bright". I've received lots of compliments on the name.
I've been studying Gaelic with Duolingo for a bit, but it's difficult to find a good way to practise producing the language organically, without sentences that no sane person would use in day-to-day life. I also tend to struggle with the phonetics. The only qualms I have with Duo are that it doesn't have speaking exercises to complement its listening exercises and that it doesn't have a way to explain why something is pronounced a certain way in a certain context, e.g. "bh" as /v/ at the beginning or end of a word but /w/ in the middle.
I've been considering duo lingo. Thanks for the info!
I’ve heard that the fishermen like to use it to let their friends know where the fish are without letting others know like the Navajo Code Talkers, making it useful today. 😁
The wife and I are learning Irish gaelic on duolingo. We're loving it so far!
@420rgb2 2 I will adjust in the future, then.
@420rgb2 2 yeah, but we do that, because we don't call Scottish Gaelic just Scottish, due to some confusion with Scots, by someone out there.
Chan e cànan marbh a th ’ann an Gàidhlig.
My parents speak it but didn’t teach me growing up. Duolingo is a great (and free) tool.
Another point: Scotland itself was not a single ethnostate until recently, the Scots-Gaels (aka the people that brought the Gaelic language to Scotland) were but one of several ethnic groups residing in Scotland when the Kingdom of Alba united the land that would become Scotland, their descendants becoming the Highlanders of historical Scotland
Meanwhile in the Lowlands, Gaelic wasn't much spoken because that Gaelic ethnic history is lacking, most Lowlanders were themselves of Anglo-Saxon descent (as well as some Bretons and Norse and Picts), and with more trade coming from the English in the south rather than the Gaelic north, there was less cause for the Lowlanders to know Gaelic unless they had personal connections, so even in history Gaelic was always spoken by a relative minority of the Scottish people (compared to Ireland), and with the Highland Clearances of the post-Jacobite era and the Highland Scots being scattered into the Lowlands and the Colonies, Gaelic took a further nosedive into relative obscurity
Part of the point of this is to say Gaelic is not something universal to Scottish culture or history, and Highlanders are a minority population within Scotland, so there isn't much value ascribed to the language compared to Irish Gaelic (and in another comment I note that even many Irish don't care much for the Irish Gaelic language), so failure to preserve the language is not necessarily a failure to the Scottish people, but also if you choose to learn it you definitely should and let nothing stop you, if there isn't much stock in preserving a cultural history, you could just learn it simply because it's cool lol
I'm afraid that some of what you say is not true. At one time, Gaelic was spoken more or less throughout mainland Scotland, even in the Lowlands. Galloway and Ayrshire were Gaelic-speaking right up to the 18th century. The last native speaker of Aberdeenshire Gaelic only died as late as 1984. The extent of Gaelic is evidenced by the overwhelming number of placenames that are of Gaelic origin all over Scotland except for the Northern Isles. There are Gaelic placenames even in the Lothians which were traditionally the area where the Angles settled and were confined to until about 1100 AD.
Saying that most Lowlanders were of Anglo-Saxon descent is nonsense. DNA studies have shown that there is only about 10% Anglo-Saxon DNA in long-established populations in Scotland. The Angles were the smallest proportion of the population in Scotland. The Britons of Strathclyde, the Picts, the Gaels and the Norse made up the vast majority. There were a small number of Anglo-Normans and a larger number of Flemish, but both were in the minority.
Around 1500, the split between Gaelic and Scots was around 50/50. The real decline set in after James VI&I issued the Iona Statutes in 1609 forcing Gaels "of substance" to send their children to be educated in English. There was no state support for a bible in Gaelic and no state support for schooling in Gaelic. The state and the church imposed English on the Gaels. A Gaelic bible was introduced in the 18th century and there were efforts to promote schooling in Gaelic. However, with the Gaelic way of life being smashed after Culloden, the clearances and forced emigration, the real blow to Gaelic was the 1872 Education Act which made English the language of compulsory schooling in Scotland. Children were beaten, shamed and encouraged to denounce each other for speaking Gaelic in school.
As a Scot, I am delighted that Gaelic is now a protected language and has government support to promote it in public life.
@@alicemilne1444 Im afraid he is right, Historian Steven L. Danver, who specializes in indigenous ethnic research, wrote regarding Lowlands Scots and Gaelic Scots' unique ancestries: "The people of Scotland are divided into two groups - Lowland Scots in the southern part of the country and Highland Scots in the north - that differ from one another ethnically, culturally, and linguistically ... Lowlanders differ from Highlanders in their ethnic origin. While Highland Scots are of Celtic (Gaelic) descent, Lowland Scots are descended from people of Germanic stock. During the seventh century C.E., settlers of Germanic tribes of Angles moved from Northumbria in present-day northern England and southeastern Scotland to the area around Edinburgh. Their descendants gradually occupied all of the Lowlands."
@@Xacute00 He obviously doesn't know much about Scotland then.
@@alicemilne1444 You are obviously arrogant, thinking you know better then someone who has studied it is pretty arrogant but hey keep telling yourself your right, but facts are facts, sorry if your offended, definition of arrogance; an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions, not only are you arrogant but ignorant as well, definition; lacking knowledge or comprehension of the thing specified, which when you are arrogant it leads to ignorance which leads to stupidity, not that you are stupid but it is stupid to think your personal uneducated, unprofessional knowledge is fact.
@@alicemilne1444 Quote from Arthur K. Moore (2014). "The Tenant of the Garden". The Frontier Mind. University Press of Kentucky. Their original home was the Lowlands of Scotland, a region from which the Gaels had been largely expelled sometime after the arrival of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes in the fifth century. A predominantly Germanic people, the Lowlanders, like the Northumbrians, mixed freely with the Norse, who in the ninth and tenth centuries planted numerous settlements in northern England and southern Scotland, and by the end of the Viking period they were even less Celtic than before.
I've learned about five hundred words took a break and learning again.
Cape Breton University on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia teaches courses related to the ‘dead’ language. International students are welcomed.
How do you say "fuck the english" in Gaelic?
Tha gaol agam air a ’Ghàidhlig! 🏴🇸🇪
This may be a silly request, but could you guys identify which tartans you are wearing and which whiskeys you guys are enjoying while shooting these videos? 🏴👍🏼
If I am not mistaken. Scotland has been ramping up teaching Scottish Gaelic . From what I understand they have seen a disservice in not teaching their history and culture.
I believe that's right too. I have heard they now teach it in most schools again as a subject
It was made illegal for a long time thanks to the English. Much culture was lost, and much was transformed in strange ways especially in religious practices.
@@kredonystus7768 Bollocks!
The teaching of Gaelic is being encouraged in schools now particularly Primary (that's Elementary for those of you the other side of the pond).
However, if we have had a disservice in teaching our history and culture it must have been of our own making as the Scottish education system is distict from that in England and Wales. This has been the case since well before the Union of the Crowns (1603 for those who don't know) never mind the Act of Union (1707) and has remained so to this day. Same applies to the Law, hence in Scotland you can have one of three verdicts (Guilty, Not Guilty and Not Proven) not the two that predominate in most other legal forms.
The biggest problem with schools in Scotland (like most of the West) is that they have been politicised and now indoctrinate rather than educate. This is why the Scottish PISA scores have been falling for the last three or four cycles (since the SNP came to power) and we now rank below England in several key areas - something that never happened before.
I love the Gaelic language; I’m learning it on Duolingo! I think if you want to preserve the culture, preserve the language. I blame England for banning Gaelic after the Jacobite rebellion. This totally contributed to the endangerment of the language. This is also why I’m a Scottish nationalist (only been once and don’t have any ancestry). Hopefully the language is kept. ALBA GU BRATH!
AIRSON ALBA!
Any language must have a critical mass of speakers to survive, and it must be used in daily life. Without that, it will die.
I'm a Scot, who lives in Wales and there are still large areas of the country where Welsh is still the first language. They have been fighting since the 60's to preserve this.
In Wales everything must be bilingual, by law. All Govt services, the Welsh Assembly, Local Authorities, Courts, Police, Hospitals, Utility Companies, TV, etc. must operate in both languages. Even our road signs are bilingual.
There are Welsh Medium schools in every large town where all teaching is done in Welsh, and all children must learn Welsh up to the age of 16. They have better funding from the Govt than English language schools, and as a result, are very popular. This hasn't reversed the decline of the language, but it does protect it and everyone now knows some basic Welsh.
2 similar examples I can think of are
1) Canada, where the country is officially bilingual, but French is only really spoken in Quebec.
2) Northern Ireland, where Irish was dying out in the North until the Troubles started in the late 60's. The Republicans started to revive it as a means of reinforcing their Irish Catholic identity and culture, and along with the GAA, and separate schools, it became part of a wider Gaelic revival. Unfortunately, it also widened the divide between both communities. No Unionist could, or would have any connection to, or use Irish or play GAA games. They don't identity themselves as Irish, they see themselves as British.
"It's a thorny issue with strong arguments on both sides, especially for Scots who must continuously decide if efforts to save the language are worthy of public funding."
👆 Thalla is cac d' àirde. No there aren't, what absolute shite patter.
Agreed. Folks don't understand the amount of history, culture, tradition, and downright humanity that is lost when a language disappears. Of course it's worth saving, it's as worth saving as saving a people themselves! What nonsense.
Aidh.
aontaich le ar n-uile-chridhe! bruidhinn gun toinnisg
would you vote for independence for scotland from the uk if you could? what's your opinion on independence for scotland?
The Scottish Gaelic language is half dead because of England! They banned it after the Jacobite rebellion and they banned other aspects of highland culture too. Neo-eisimeileachd do dh’Alba!!!
Gaelic with Jason , Sabhal Mor Ostaig . BBC Alba . Tha Gaidhlig sgoinneil. Feumaidh sinn bruidhinn e fhathast. . A culture must keep its language alive .
Thanks Erik!
@420rgb2 2 Thank you!
My family's home town in Co. Donegal are part of the gaeltacht where the Irish is spoken as much as or in some places more than English. So yes, while I would love to retire there someday I want to learn the language better than I know it already.
do it,David, help to maintain the language.
Déan é. Tabhair cabhair domsa leí a chaomhnú…
The video you showed was of one of the last monolingual speakers of irish gaelic not scots gaelic they are in fact similar but different languages.If scots gaelic is to be preserved it has to be in scotland not ireland,they are too different jurisdictions anyway.Very poorly researched which is not like this channel normally. I mean learning one of the gaelic languages will make it easy to learn the others but they are different languages.
I'm gonna learn Gàidhlig and use it as if everyone speaks it so that I can sus out those who don't speak it and I WILL use it when I am cabin crew
Bha sin math! Tapadh leibh. 🏴🇮🇪
Hey, wanna start out saying I love you guys and your products, but one thing you said bothered me you said 'we are not Scottish period, we don't live in Scotland' well that may be true I am just as Scottish as someone in Scotland because my family and clan was forced out of the highlands because of persecution after the battle of Culloden. Also, 40% of my clan died on the voyage over fleeing from the English and Scottish and the majority of people who are native to Scotland don't live in Scotland they mainly live in North America and Australia, so no matter what I will always be a native of Scotland not Canada and so will my children! Also, no person can be native to Canada or America because we already have indigenous people who have lived here before us and want their home to be free like Scotland should be! Buidah No Bas and have a great day!!
Only white Scottish people are Scottish. Asians and non Europeans cannot be Scottish
Nope. Only Europeans can be Scottish sorry fella
@@Xacute00 idk man as a Scot who lives and was born here I believe you are a product of your environment and the culture you are born into. It doesn't matter to your ancestry. If you came here you would probably not fit in as a Scot and people wouldn't recognise you as Scottish (although of course that doesn't mean that we aren't friendly). A lot of people who move from CA/US or even England after years just don't get the patter. I think I speak for a good majority of folk here that when we hear an American/Canadian say "I'm Scottish" we cringe a little. A lot of us feel particular annoyance towards people trying to appropriate our culture because it was almost completely destroyed and whilst your lineage may be from x clan that isn't really what makes a Scot a Scot. If you don't quack like a duck or walk like a duck then you're not a duck. Also we're not a race.
@@Griefthaboy Well that's easy for you to say, my family went to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia which means New Scotland, and we settled and founded Broad Cove Banks. My ancestor was a Scion of the House of Lorne and I can track my ancestry to Scotland. Since my family was forced out and we have kept with our highland traditions I would consider myself a Highlander still while being Canadian my nationality of course but that doesn't change my, shall I say spirit or identity? For example, the Jews were forced out of Israel but still segregated together to remain Jewish are they not any less Israelites because their lands were stolen and they were forced out? While obviously, my ancestors didn't go through the extremities of the Jewish people, it still proves my point to an extent. Now I understand your view of sharing an identity with a person of another nationality may be weird but isn't that a little silly. Are Sikhs in Canada just not Sikhs? Are the Ukrainian people who came here as refugees no longer Ukrainian? You can chuckle about it but in our hearts, we will always be highlanders no matter the opinion of any person. Best of luck to you, I hope that you can understand the connection our nations have.
@@Griefthaboy Also to add in, culture and nationality are two completely separate things also I don’t recognize myself as Scottish I identify as a Scottish Highlander a different culture group since the Scottish are more focused around Norman and Britons culture groups then Gaelic culture though it does include some aspects of it as some of its main identifiers. It’s like you have never heard of oppression or the highland clearance, when someone’s land is stolen that doesn’t mean they have to allow for their identity to be stolen too. Also since Scottish Highlanders are a culture not a nationality I can identify as that, also over 40 million people around the world claim to be Scottish and only 5 million of them are actually in Scotland which should disgust you that your government is responsible and you just stand idle. So our culture is no longer decided in our homeland but in the places where your great government and our great kings family decided to exile all the savages they didn’t like. If that bothers you then petition your government to make it so people who have Scottish ancestry can return to Scotland. That way those who’s ancestors were stripped of their basic human rights will be given the opportunity to return and identify as Scottish in nationality. This act will help to resolve what was stolen from them by the past and help to rebuild what was lost as well, restore a hopeful future to Scotland and to help heal the dreadful present it’s in now. Also if all it takes is for you to be nationally Scottish to be culturally Scottish then I guess you see Indian, Pakistani, Polish, Chinese, Gypsies and multiple African peoples culture as part of your own but wait that would be cultural appropriation. I wonder why lots of Canadians identify as Scottish? it’s because a large portion of our population is Scottish and not Native Canadians.
The words are not dead
Whiskey
Smashing
Galore
Brag
Brogue
Glen
Lag
Tag
Bag
Twig(understand)
More
Spate
A bruidhin ghaidlig gach latha ,h uile duine.
We all speak a little Gaelic every day.!
Dead ! Nuugh !
Claymore,slogan,Brodie, and so on...
@@maximilianolimamoreira5002
Cearst! Tapaidh leat!
Beo= to be , live, exist!
@@grahamfleming9179 what do cearst mean? some compliment?
@@maximilianolimamoreira5002 right or justice,agreement with you!
@@grahamfleming9179 taing airson mìneachadh,Graham
a way to look at it:
pretty much everybody in Ireland has to learn Irish (Gaelic) in school growing up
very few retain it let alone speak it, many if not most don't actually care for it; many others say that kind of time could be better spent learning any other language (especially to make them competitive in the EU job market); many of course do appreciate it and see the value of cultural preservation, but the sheer amount that will tell you to your face they don't care can subvert expectation
👍
Discord for Gaelic?? That's cool
Tha Gàidhlig agam agus s’ Ann à Eilean cheap Breatainn Alba Nuadh. :)
Tha mi ag ionnsachadh Gaidhlig.
Tha Gàidhlig na h-Alba agam cuideachd!
I'm really not sure what the point in learning Gaelic would be for a Canadian like myself... All my Scottish and Irish ancestors have been dead for at least 40 years. I can't think of a single person I'd be able to talk to. I mean... I guess I could learn it know just to "show off" to my peers but I don't really want to do that. Plus I just plain suck at language learning. My wife is native Mexican and I'm slowly grinding my way through Spanish for gosh sake! 😂
Guess you're not from Nova Scotia (New Scotland) then?
For a large part of the 20th century there were more native Scots Gaelic speakers in Canada than there were in Scotland... I remember being amazed to see dual-language street signs (English and Gaelic) in a sizeable town in North Nova Scotia in 1998.
@@douglasherron7534 No I'm from Alberta where there is not many Scottish Canadians. Most of our white population is of Ukrainian roots and other east European nations (I have none, I'm almost of completely British and Dutch ancestry.) They left the Russian empire during the revolution and world wars. They populated much of the northern portion of the province. I've never met a single Gaelic speaker that I know of. Though I've met the odd Scottish person in passing so... Maybe?
@@99oildrops Alberta must have had a fairly significant Scottish diaspora at some point considering Calgary and Banff are both named after Scottish towns and even Edmonton has strong connections to Scotland or Scottish settlers as many of the place names in the city are Scottish.
@@douglasherron7534 I suppose there would be some at least but it has never really seemed noticeable. I do know that Edmonton is an English name but I would think there was a few Scottish people who settled there. I had no idea that Banff was a Scottish name though. That's way cool! 🙂
@jonnyneace8928 And this is relevant to my comment how exactly...?
Also, I am not Canadian.
I’m learning it on Duolingo. The language contains the culture. English is not our language but the language of the invaders from the mainland who call themselves by that name.
AAAH your not the one person I always thought you were the one person, you know...just editing so it looked like you were talking to yourself. Maybe one of you should grow some hair so people can recognise you guys. I'm still laughing about how stupid I feel realizing you are two seperate people.So how is the Scottish independance debate going in the U.S.A....??????
“Neo-eisimeileachd do dh’Alba!” says this non-Scottish Nebraskan.